Archives for Capitol Hillbillies

CIA Director John Brennan will tell Congress on Thursday that Islamic State militants are training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for their territorial losses. In remarks prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee, Brennan says IS has been working to build an apparatus to direct and inspire attacks against its foreign enemies, as in the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels — ones the CIA believes were directed by IS leaders. “ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operativesRead More

On a grim and delicate mission, President Barack Obama will offer solace and healing to a distraught Orlando, even as the political world turns the shooting into a fresh excuse to fight about terrorism and gun control. In Orlando, Obama will confront an event whose causes seem to grow murkier by the day. Even as the families of 49 victims prepare to bury their loved ones, it’s still unclear what confluence of factors led a 29-year-old Muslim born in New York to open fire in a gay nightclub where he may have been a frequent patron. Typically, when the presidentRead More

Sen. Elizabeth Warren threw her support behind Democrat Hillary Clinton for president Thursday, following President Barack Obama in sending a signal to progressive voters now backing Bernie Sanders that it’s time to unite around the presumptive Democratic nominee. “I am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States and to make sure that Donald Trump never gets anyplace close to the White House,” the Massachusetts senator said on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Warren was the only holdout among the Senate’s Democratic women and, givenRead More

House Speaker Paul Ryan is proposing to secure U.S. borders by overhauling the immigration system and installing robust defenses to keep out extremists, criminals and drug cartels. The plan is part of a national security strategy the Wisconsin Republican will unveil on Thursday. It’s a key plank in a broader policy blueprint he is crafting that seeks to unite Republicans amid the frequent distractions triggered by Donald Trump’s unconventional presidential campaign. The focus on immigration and border protection tracks with one of the cornerstones of Trump’s platform. Ryan calls for the use of “high fencing” along border areas, but steersRead More

A sympathetic House Judiciary Committee is giving a high-profile forum to a top Republican who wants to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, a cause that excites conservatives but seems unlikely to go far in Congress this election year. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz planned to testify to the GOP-run Judiciary panel on Tuesday. The Utah Republican has been pushing for Koskinen’s removal since last summer, accusing the commissioner of hindering congressional investigations of his agency. “You can’t thumb your nose at Congress and expect there to be no consequences,” Chaffetz said in an interview last week.Read More

Shouts of “Shame, shame, shame,” erupted in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday as Republican lawmakers narrowly defeated legislation to protect the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of government contractors. The measure, an amendment to a veterans and military construction spending bill introduced by New York Democrat Sean Maloney, initially had enough “yes” votes to pass, according to the count in the House chamber. But House Republican leaders extended the time allowed for the vote as they urged enough party members to change their positions to defeat it by a vote of 213 to 212.Read More

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday released a list of 11 potential picks to replace Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, a mix of federal and state judges that appeared tailored to win over conservatives still skeptical of his candidacy. The decision to release such a list is highly unusual for a presidential candidate, and comes as Trump is working to unite a Republican Party fractured by his candidacy and assuage still-skeptical establishment Republicans who question his ability to win a general election. “I have a lot of people that are conservative that really like me, loveRead More

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold an usual tete-a-tete on Thursday with Paul Ryan, the country’s top elected Republican, to see if they can begin healing fissures in the party created by Trump’s insurgent candidacy. Party leaders are normally eager to rally around a presidential nominee in order to unite forces for the general election battle. But Ryan, the U.S. House of Representatives speaker, has withheld his endorsement of Trump out of concern over his incendiary tone and policy ideas that run counter to deeply held Republican doctrine. Both Trump, the presumptive nominee, and Ryan struck a conciliatory toneRead More

Presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will visit Republican lawmakers on Thursday, but instead of what is usually just a rite on the road to the nomination, Trump will face pressure to tone down his rhetoric and clarify his policy positions as a step toward unifying the fractured party. Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party has shaken the party’s establishment and prompted soul-searching over whether to reluctantly get behind him or cede any role in the Nov. 8 presidential election, when Hillary Clinton is expected to be the Democratic nominee. Republican officials and lawmakers say Trump has the potentialRead More

Former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz returned to his job in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday with a warning to Washington that the turbulent primary race was a wake-up call. “All across this country people are hungry for change. This election cycle should be a wake-up call to Washington, D.C.,” the senator from Texas said outside his office. “The frustration and volcanic anger with Washington was echoed throughout this election.” Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders have upended expectations in their respective presidential campaigns, tapping into voter anger at establishment politicians in Washington. Cruz, aRead More